LFG: Should I advertise a campaign on campus? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 setrin Dec 02, 2011 0:02:26	First of all, give me a moment to explain my reasoning. I tend to have a lot of trouble finding players for D&D. I grew up in a small city and only barely managed to scrape together a group when I first started playing a few years ago. D&D players were few and far between and even fewer were willing to give 4e so much as a glance. Honestly, I had to start from scratch, gathering a handful of friends on my birthday and saying "Why don't we give this a shot?" Now that I'm off at college I, again have no group to play with. I have one of my friends from the initial group and his roommate for gaming left and the gaming club on campus flat out turned me down saying I wasn't going to find a 4e group with them. (Most of them prefer GURPS and what little D&D players they have, all hate 4e) I've recently come into the idea of making a flyer for an old campaign I drew up from when I first started playing. I figure at the very least there has to be a handful of 4e players scattered throughout a large college campus and with a regular schedule of meetings, we should be able to play through it during the course of the next semester. I'm planning to include the following provisions: 1) Must know the 4e system 2) Bring own dice and books to campaign (Laptops are sort of a pending thing right now. I often disallow them during my campaigns.) 3) Character sheet info will be composed of books you own. DMG material will be cleared by the DM (me) 4) Must be willing to attend regular campaign sessions throughout the semester 5) Submitting a character sheet so we know what kind of group to plan for. (Also to avoid the possibility of too many people trying to play the same class.) My friends also suggested that we meet anyone who sends an email about the campaign. It's best to know who we're playing with and why/how they play. This is a fairly story/roleplay-heavy campaign with difficult encounters. We need neither the power-gaming guy who will start complaining if a speech is a bit long nor the guy who invests so much into his character that he tries to bend the campaign to fit his grand vision. This will also allow us to try and get a group that we think will get along with one another. Needless to say, I have a few questions and issues with the idea. 1) What do we do about someone who wants to try to get into D&D through this or someone who insists on bringing along a friend or girl/boyfriend who doesn't know much about the game but him/herself is a good player? 2) If I get too many people, how do I let people know they have or haven't been chosen for the campaign 3) If I miraculously get enough people to request I run TWO of these things should I even consider that? One the one hand I plan to be a teacher and running two of the same thing with two very different groups could be seen as practice for using the same lesson plan for different classes, but on the other hand, it's a LOT of work on my part and I don't want a game to affect my grades. (I highly doubt I will run two even if asked because of this.) Has anyone ever tried something like this? How did it go? It could be a good way to meet new people on campus as well as a lot of potential fun- but all it takes is one unexpected bad player to mess it all up. Does this sound like a good idea to anyone?
#2 ionait Dec 02, 2011 11:24:55	I haven't tried something similar before, but I did have something to add about your concerns with brand new players or vets bringing new players to the table. I just starting D&D with some friends, and one of them brought a girlfriend one day. It was obvious he hadn't briefed her in any way and she was running off of assumptions and things she might have heard on tv or the internet about the game. I've helped everyone in my game with character sheets, which often takes up to an hour per every two people that need it, and a lot of explaining and page flipping on my part. Which is ok. But the girlfriend got very, very confused about.. well.. everything. It turned out she'd never even played an RPG on a console or computer before, so every single detail was foreign. She chose to be a paladin (after we told her that she could NOT invent her own powers, for the millionth time) and that class in 4e isn't easy. Many of the powers paladins use require a certain aura to be up first. She got so frustrated during our first combat that she said "FINE. I'LL JUST POKE IT WITH MY SWORD THEN. IT DOESN'T MATTER. WHATEVER." It brought the whole group down to an extent and took us all out of the campaign. She was a great role player actually, but the mechanics gave her so much trouble, she sort of depressed everyone. I breathed a sigh of relief when she and the boyfriend had to leave early. If you're going to consider allowing new players in, I would set rules. It's an intricate game, so have them work with someone, or you, to make and understand their character before the day of the game. Ask them to look up what they can online and to borrow books that explain basic rules and dice usage. If they want to dive in, make them do their homework first, or the whole group will suffer.
#3 Hippolyte Dec 03, 2011 21:08:05	I posted posters advertsiing a Rolemaster campaign when I was studying at the University of Toronto in the early 1990s. It worked well, and I soon had three friendly and interested strangers join my other two friends to make a party of five. (Too bad I sucked as a dungeon master back then: 4th edition would have greatly helped me run an adventure suitable for novice players.) I would not make so many limitations as the original poster has made: you will be lucky to get two or three players without placing restrictions. Just state the game and your willingness to run: negotiate everythign else when you meet. Plus I think the first gaming session should use pregenerated characters to speed things along. After you get them hooked, the sky is the limit.
#4 setrin Dec 04, 2011 13:50:42	I would not make so many limitations as the original poster has made: you will be lucky to get two or three players without placing restrictions. Just state the game and your willingness to run: negotiate everythign else when you meet. I was thinking about that earlier- I think I'll get more of a turnout if I change "Must know the 4e system" to "Must know or be willing to learn the D&D4e system." I do also have a plethora of books myself that I can lend to players during sessions, but I doubt I will let anyone take the books for extended periods of time- I'd rather not even contemplate risking losing any of them as some aren't easy to find anymore.
#5 Hippolyte Dec 10, 2011 21:50:05	I was thinking about that earlier- I think I'll get more of a turnout if I change "Must know the 4e system" to "Must know or be willing to learn the D&D4e system." I do also have a plethora of books myself that I can lend to players during sessions, but I doubt I will let anyone take the books for extended periods of time- I'd rather not even contemplate risking losing any of them as some aren't easy to find anymore. Just direct them toward the pdfs for the Players' Handbooks. Hopefully some of them can bring a laptop to the game.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

setrin

Dec 02, 2011 0:02:26

First of all, give me a moment to explain my reasoning.

I tend to have a lot of trouble finding players for D&D. I grew up in a small city and only barely managed to scrape together a group when I first started playing a few years ago. D&D players were few and far between and even fewer were willing to give 4e so much as a glance. Honestly, I had to start from scratch, gathering a handful of friends on my birthday and saying "Why don't we give this a shot?"

Now that I'm off at college I, again have no group to play with. I have one of my friends from the initial group and his roommate for gaming left and the gaming club on campus flat out turned me down saying I wasn't going to find a 4e group with them. (Most of them prefer GURPS and what little D&D players they have, all hate 4e)

I've recently come into the idea of making a flyer for an old campaign I drew up from when I first started playing. I figure at the very least there has to be a handful of 4e players scattered throughout a large college campus and with a regular schedule of meetings, we should be able to play through it during the course of the next semester.

I'm planning to include the following provisions:
1) Must know the 4e system
2) Bring own dice and books to campaign (Laptops are sort of a pending thing right now. I often disallow them during my campaigns.)
3) Character sheet info will be composed of books you own. DMG material will be cleared by the DM (me)
4) Must be willing to attend regular campaign sessions throughout the semester
5) Submitting a character sheet so we know what kind of group to plan for. (Also to avoid the possibility of too many people trying to play the same class.)

My friends also suggested that we meet anyone who sends an email about the campaign. It's best to know who we're playing with and why/how they play. This is a fairly story/roleplay-heavy campaign with difficult encounters. We need neither the power-gaming guy who will start complaining if a speech is a bit long nor the guy who invests so much into his character that he tries to bend the campaign to fit his grand vision. This will also allow us to try and get a group that we think will get along with one another.

Needless to say, I have a few questions and issues with the idea.
1) What do we do about someone who wants to try to get into D&D through this or someone who insists on bringing along a friend or girl/boyfriend who doesn't know much about the game but him/herself is a good player?
2) If I get too many people, how do I let people know they have or haven't been chosen for the campaign
3) If I miraculously get enough people to request I run TWO of these things should I even consider that? One the one hand I plan to be a teacher and running two of the same thing with two very different groups could be seen as practice for using the same lesson plan for different classes, but on the other hand, it's a LOT of work on my part and I don't want a game to affect my grades. (I highly doubt I will run two even if asked because of this.)

Has anyone ever tried something like this? How did it go? It could be a good way to meet new people on campus as well as a lot of potential fun- but all it takes is one unexpected bad player to mess it all up. Does this sound like a good idea to anyone?

ionait

Dec 02, 2011 11:24:55

I haven't tried something similar before, but I did have something to add about your concerns with brand new players or vets bringing new players to the table. I just starting D&D with some friends, and one of them brought a girlfriend one day. It was obvious he hadn't briefed her in any way and she was running off of assumptions and things she might have heard on tv or the internet about the game. I've helped everyone in my game with character sheets, which often takes up to an hour per every two people that need it, and a lot of explaining and page flipping on my part. Which is ok. But the girlfriend got very, very confused about.. well.. everything. It turned out she'd never even played an RPG on a console or computer before, so every single detail was foreign.

She chose to be a paladin (after we told her that she could NOT invent her own powers, for the millionth time) and that class in 4e isn't easy. Many of the powers paladins use require a certain aura to be up first. She got so frustrated during our first combat that she said "FINE. I'LL JUST POKE IT WITH MY SWORD THEN. IT DOESN'T MATTER. WHATEVER."

It brought the whole group down to an extent and took us all out of the campaign. She was a great role player actually, but the mechanics gave her so much trouble, she sort of depressed everyone. I breathed a sigh of relief when she and the boyfriend had to leave early.

If you're going to consider allowing new players in, I would set rules. It's an intricate game, so have them work with someone, or you, to make and understand their character before the day of the game. Ask them to look up what they can online and to borrow books that explain basic rules and dice usage. If they want to dive in, make them do their homework first, or the whole group will suffer.

Hippolyte

Dec 03, 2011 21:08:05

I posted posters advertsiing a Rolemaster campaign when I was studying at the University of Toronto in the early 1990s. It worked well, and I soon had three friendly and interested strangers join my other two friends to make a party of five. (Too bad I sucked as a dungeon master back then: 4th edition would have greatly helped me run an adventure suitable for novice players.)

I would not make so many limitations as the original poster has made: you will be lucky to get two or three players without placing restrictions. Just state the game and your willingness to run: negotiate everythign else when you meet. Plus I think the first gaming session should use pregenerated characters to speed things along. After you get them hooked, the sky is the limit.

setrin

Dec 04, 2011 13:50:42

I would not make so many limitations as the original poster has made: you will be lucky to get two or three players without placing restrictions. Just state the game and your willingness to run: negotiate everythign else when you meet.

I was thinking about that earlier- I think I'll get more of a turnout if I change "Must know the 4e system" to "Must know or be willing to learn the D&D4e system." I do also have a plethora of books myself that I can lend to players during sessions, but I doubt I will let anyone take the books for extended periods of time- I'd rather not even contemplate risking losing any of them as some aren't easy to find anymore.

Hippolyte

Dec 10, 2011 21:50:05

I was thinking about that earlier- I think I'll get more of a turnout if I change "Must know the 4e system" to "Must know or be willing to learn the D&D4e system." I do also have a plethora of books myself that I can lend to players during sessions, but I doubt I will let anyone take the books for extended periods of time- I'd rather not even contemplate risking losing any of them as some aren't easy to find anymore.

Just direct them toward the pdfs for the Players' Handbooks. Hopefully some of them can bring a laptop to the game.